Pacific Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases Research
John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawai'i at Manoa
Director: Dr. Richard Yanagihara

ADVISORS

The COBRE External Advisory Committee (EAC) is composed of distinguished scientists in biomedicine and health from research-intensive institutions who are recognized nationally and internationally for their contributions in research on new, emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. Members of the COBRE EAC have also been selected for their administrative experience and organizational skills at developing and overseeing complex, multidisciplinary centers or departments of infectious diseases; their experience in serving on NIH study sections; their funding records; and their commitment to mentoring junior faculty. The COBRE EAC will meet annually. COBRE Collaborators and the COBRE Executive Board will also be invited to participate in the annual EAC meeting, during which time, the COBRE EAC will thoroughly evaluate all aspects of the Center, including a rigorous review of the scientific progress of the COBRE Research Projects and the productivity of each COBRE Investigator. In addition, the COBRE EAC will assess the effectiveness of the administrative structure, assist in revising guidelines for monitoring the progress of individual developmental projects, identify and develop additional opportunities for mentoring and research training (either at their respective universities and other research-intensive institutions), provide advice for improvements and make recommendations for future research priorities and directions, as well as provide assistance in the development and preparation of grant applications. A written review will be prepared by the COBRE EAC within 60 days of the EAC meeting.

Madeleine W. Cunningham, Ph.D.
George L. Cross Research Professor, Department of Microbiology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Dr. Cunningham is one of the foremost experts on the pathogenesis of ARF. As a biomedical researcher in an IDeA state, Dr. Cunningham fully appreciates the obstacles to achieving a successful research career in a resource-poor environment. She received her Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from the University of Tennessee in 1973 under the direction of streptococcal diseases experts, Dr. Edwin Beachey and Dr. Gene Stollerman. She came to Oklahoma as a post-doctoral fellow at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation with internationally known protein chemist, Dr. Jordan Tang. Dr. Cunningham has been on the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center faculty in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology for 23 years. She is the recipient of an NIH Research Career Development Award as well as a MERIT award and the George Lynn Cross Research Professorship at the University of Oklahoma. She served as a member of NIH Bacteriology and Mycology 1 study section from 1989-1993 and served as chair of the American Heart Association's Immunology/Microbiology Study Section. Dr. Cunningham also has served on the National Research Committee and the Research Program and Evaluation Committee of the American Heart Association. She currently serves on the grants board of the Oklahoma Presbyterian Health Foundation, the VA Merit Review Committee on Infectious Diseases in Washington DC, and is director of the immunology training grant at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Dr. Cunningham's major area of research expertise is in streptococcal diseases and sequelae and the association of autoimmune disease with molecular mimicry and infection. Specifically, her research has addressed mechanisms of immune pathogenesis in rheumatic fever and autoimmune myocarditis. She is a dedicated and outstanding teacher and lecturer, having participated in graduate education for over 25 years.

Diane E. Griffin, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Professor of Medicine and Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland

Dr. Griffin is the principal investigator on three NIH R01 research grants for studies on the pathogenesis of measles and arthropod-borne viral encephalitis, a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grant for development of a new measles vaccine for young infants, a WHO research grant for measles research in Zambia, and an institutional T32 training grant “Molecular and Cellular Bases of Infectious Diseases” for education of Ph.D. students and postdoctoral fellows. She is also a co-investigator on a Wellcome Trust/Burroughs Wellcome Fund Initiative on Infectious Diseases Research in Developing Countries, and serves as the interim director of the newly established Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute, funded from a private donation to the Bloomberg School of Public Health, the world’s first and largest stand-alone school of public health in terms of students, faculty, and research funding. Dr. Griffin, an international expert in the pathogenesis of measles and alphavirus encephalitis, has conducted research in Peru, South Africa and Zambia. She is the author of more than 300 journal articles and book chapters, including the definitive chapters on measles and alphaviruses in Fields Virology. Dr. Griffin, who has been a member of the WHO Steering Committee for respiratory diseases, is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Infectious Diseases Society of America. She is past president of the American Society for Virology, and has served as a consultant for the Institute of Medicine and for CDC.

King K. Holmes, M.D., Ph.D.
Director, Center for STD and AIDS; Professor of Medicine and Adjunct Professor of Microbiology and Epidemiology, University of Washington School of Medicine; Head, Infectious Diseases, Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, Washington

Dr. Holmes is the principal investigator of two NIH Center grants (Center for AIDS Research and STD Cooperative Research Center) and an NIH AIDS/STD Training grant, as well as co-principal investigator of both the NIH Fogarty International Center AIDS Research Training Program and the NIH International Health and Biomedical Informatics Research and Training Program. Additionally, he is principal investigator of a recently funded Wellcome Trust/Burroughs Wellcome Fund Initiative on Infectious Diseases Research in Developing Countries; a subcontractor on a PASCA-funded multicenter study of HIV/STD prevalences and socio-behavioral patterns among female sex workers and men who have sex with men in Central American capital cities and ports. During the past three decades, Dr. Holmes has been one of the most important investigators in the field of STD. His textbook, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, currently in third edition, is regarded as the gold standard for those dealing with STD and sexual health. His research, published in over 400 original articles, has played a seminal role in a global understanding of the pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of most STD. He has served as a key participant in virtually every meeting of STD treatment guideline panels for CDC and WHO and, most recently, in the development and publication of the joint USPHS-IDSA guidelines for the treatment and prevention of opportunistic infections in persons infected with HIV. He recently co-edited a compilation of studies on syndromic management of STD, and is helping to develop the new USPHS-IDSA guidelines on management of reproductive tract infection. Dr. Holmes has served as a consultant of STD/HIV activities at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Family Health International, the World Bank, and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

Clarence J. Peters, M.D.
Distinguished Professor, Departments of Microbiology and Pathology, and Director, Biosafety Level 4 Laboratory, Center for Tropical Diseases, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Texas; formerly, Chief, Special Pathogens Branch, CDC, Atlanta, Georgia

Dr. Peters epitomizes the very best of an illustrious pedigree of physician-scientists who have served as pioneers in the study of viral hemorrhagic fevers. He has worked in five continents, over a period of more than 30 years, on the epidemiology, treatment, and vaccine development for extremely lethal viruses requiring high containment. His book, Virus Hunter: Thirty Years of Battling Hot Viruses Around the World, published in 1997, chronicles his front-line work investigating outbreaks and epidemics involving emerging viruses in widely separated geographic regions, from Africa to the Americas. His contributions to the study of emerging microbes, including BSL-4 agents, such as Ebola, Sin Nombre, Andes and Nipah viruses, are legendary. More recently, he has been called on to provide expert testimony and advice on biodefense.